If you’re going to get your product out there, it never hurts to release a decently functional version of it for free.

Per 9to5Mac, Microsoft announced on Thursday that it’s rolling out standalone Office apps for iPhone after releasing the Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps exclusively for iPad earlier this year. Microsoft previously had an “Office Mobile” app for iPhone that integrated features of all three Office apps, but today’s release of standalone Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps for iPhone are officially replacing Office Mobile as Microsoft’s Office solution for iPhone.

Not that you should be entirely paranoid about malware on your OS X and iOS devices, but a little caution couldn’t hurt.

Per Palo Alto Networks, a new paper has been published on WireLurker, a family of malware targeting both Mac OS and iOS systems for the past six months. It’s believed that WireLurker could herald in a new generation of malware on Apple’s desktop and mobile platforms given the following characteristics:
– It is only the second known malware family that attacks iOS devices through OS X via USB.

– It is the first malware to automate generation of malicious iOS applications, through binary file replacement.

– It is the first known malware that can infect installed iOS applications similar to a traditional virus.

– It is the first in-the-wild malware to install third-party applications on non-jailbroken iOS devices through enterprise provisioning.

WireLurker was used to trojanize 467 OS X applications on the Maiyadi App Store, a third-party Mac application store in China. In the past six months, these 467 infected applications were downloaded over 356,104 times and may have impacted hundreds of thousands of users.

Nuance Communications announced on Tuesday that its popular Swype keyboard for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users with iOS 8 is now available in more than 20 languages. Other new features include new intuitive emoji support, as well as new keyboard layouts. And iPad users can now access all available Swype themes. Swype’s pioneering continuous touch technology has changed the way people input text on smartphones, and was the top paid third-party keyboard within 24 hours of launching on the App Store.

The new version includes the following fixes and changes:

– Expanded Language Support: In addition to English, French, Italian, German and Spanish, Swype is now available in more than 20 languages, including Czech, Danish, Dutch, UK English, Finnish, Greek, Hinglish, Hungarian, Irish, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Swedish, and Turkish.
Intuitive Emoji Input: Stoked about the upcoming game this weekend? When you message your friends about your excitement, Swype will now automatically suggest the right emoji. Swype will predict emojis based on the words you enter – so if you’re feeling happy, confused, tenacious or satisfied, Swype’s got just the right emoji for you.

– New Keyboard Layouts: Swype now features QWERTY, QWERTZ and AZERTY keyboard layouts for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users running iOS 8, as well as a new layout specifically designed for iPad – making it easier than ever to Swype however you hold it.

– Additionally, iPad users now can enjoy all Swype’s themes – free.

Swype retails for US$0.99 and requires iOS 8.0 or later to install and run.

If you’ve tried the new version and have any feedback to offer, let us know in the comments.

Little Snitch, the popular network utility by Objective Development Software Gmbh, has been updated to version 3.5, its nightly build number 4226, a 22.2 megabyte download adding the following fixes and changes:
– Little Snitch menubar item no longer occupies space when disabled.

– Added support for showing iOS App Extension icons.

– Improved handling of via connections:
Connection alerts now show a cancel button if either the parent or the via process is terminated.

Until Quit rules are now valid until both the parent process and via process have terminated.

OS X Yosemite changed how incoming ssh connections are handled. Incoming connections are no longer handled by sshd directly but instead by launchd. On OS X Yosemite, this version of Little Snitch automatically converts existing rules to ensure incoming SSH connections work as expected.

Not that the competition between Apple and Microsoft will ever truly go away, but this could herald in slightly better relations between the two companies, especially given how long it took Microsoft Office to come to iOS.

Per The Unofficial Apple Weblog, Microsoft has released a new series of tools for developers looking to improve integration between their apps and the company’s Office 365 service. For iOS users and developers, the main point of interest will be the new 365 APIs for mail, files, calendar, and contacts. There is currently more than 400 petabytes of data stored via Office 365, and these news tools will allow developers to access that information from their own apps.

These API’s will provide better options for connecting apps to users who need to use Office 365. Microsoft hopes to see travel reservation apps that connect to your 365 calendar and sales automation apps that integrate with your mail and files to save and send receipts.

Cook referred to recent revelations that Merchant Consumer Exchange retailers like Rite Aid and CVS are now blocking Apple Pay, characterizing the situation as a “skirmish” that will ultimately be decided by consumers “over the long arc of time.”

Call it a trade blockade of sorts, but you might not be able to use Apple Pay to purchase items at CVS or Rite Aid for a while.

Per the New York Times and 9to5Mac, Rite Aid has joined CVS in disabling Apple Pay as a payment method in its stores. Like CVS, Rite Aid is a member of the Merchant Customer eXchange (MCX) consortium promoting a rival mobile payment service, CurrentC.

Consumers are responding by threatening to boycott stores which disable Apple Pay, with more than 2,000 comments across several Reddit threads on the topic. Android users are joining in, as disabling NFC also blocks alternative mobile payment services offered by higher-end Android handsets.

As with CVS, Apple Pay initially worked in Rite Aid stores, indicating that the company has made a deliberate decision to switch off support.

While Apple has declined to comment, MasterCard said that it was the wrong decision.

“We think consumers should have the ability to pay any way they want,” said Ed McLaughlin, chief emerging payments officer at MasterCard.

Apple will be switching off SSL 3.0 support in favor of the more secure transport layer security (TSL) protocol on Wednesday, Oct. 29, noting developers will have to build in support by that time to ensure uninterrupted push notification service continues.

Apps currently using both SSL 3.0 and TSL will not be affected by the change, but those using just SSL 3.0 will need to be updated.

Apple has disabled SSL 3.0 on the Provider Communication interface in the developer environment, offering developers a way to check their apps for compatibility. More information is available through Apple’s Developer Portal.

Along with the release of its OS X 10.10 Yosemite operating system yesterday, Apple also turned loose iTunes 12.0.1 to the public.

The new version, a 212 megabyte download, now features a red icon, is “designed for OS X Yosemite” and according to AppleInsider, along with the usual performance boosts and bug fixes, brings a redesigned interface with translucent elements borrowed from Yosemite.

In addition, users can now activate Family Sharing, a feature that lets customers share music, e-book and app purchases with up to five family members. Family Sharing was introduced with iOS 8 and is now available through Yosemite.